"You're messing with me, right? This is some kind of elaborate prank. Vengeance for my brilliantly written and well-articulated system descriptions."

  For some reason, another beach chair had been off to the side. Nathan had decided it would be funny if he took it and set it a few feet away from Thalassa's own beach chair. He was lying on it, hands behind his head, eyes shut.

  He smirked.

  "As funny as it would've been to have gotten revenge like that," he said. "I think we can both agree that would been a waste both of our time."

  She was quiet for several seconds before she spoke.

  "So." She paused, again. "There's no real point to this conversation. Our greatest benefit was surprise, and now that's gone," Thalassa threw the sun-tanning screen into the air and behind her. She pressed her face into her palms. "Typical. And as soon as she's done with you, I'm probably next up on the chopping block."

  "Don't worry. I'm sure the power of [Astral Fishing] will get us out of this. Maybe if I boat ride hard enough I'll be able to beat her."

  Thalassa glared at him through an opening between her fingers. She took her palms away and sighed, her shoulders slumped.

  "I'm going to assume that there's something that I'm missing, because I can't imagine you would be this relaxed given the circumstances."

  "The main body is incapable of thinking, remember?"

  Thalassa stiffened. She sat up in her beach chair and turned toward him. "You were only speaking to the head."

  "Bingo." Nathan adjusted the hands resting behind his neck. "She also explained that she could've sent a horde of system administrators to destroy this entire circle, but she's letting us remain for her own amusement."

  Nathan had been expecting Thalassa to snort, or to give a snappy comment and retort. Instead, she was strangely silent. He looked over at her to see her face deep in thought.

  "Thalassa?" Nathan asked.

  "Her confidence isn't unfounded," Thalassa muttered. "This has probably been attempted by thousands, if not millions of people. The same fundamental strategy of taking advantage of her rational mind. And yet all of them failed."

  "So there's something we don't know," Nathan said. "Something about her powers or . . . maybe it's just as simple as nobody being up to the task."

  "On the other hand, we have you."

  "But she knows I exist, so, like, the whole element of surprise—"

  "—is still there. I sincerely doubt she believes that you're a threat to her."

  "How exactly am I the key to all this? Does this have to do with your mysterious plan?"

  "Oh yes, the plan." She nodded. "We're going to forge you into anti–Mother-System weapon."

  "Oh." He rubbed his chin. "What exactly would that consist of? Am I going to be turned into a sword or something?"

  "No, you're not going to be turned into a sword."

  "Oh, good."

  "You'll be turned into an axe instead."

  "What if I don't want to be turned into an axe?"

  "In that case, were going to have to do plan B." Thalassa stood up from the beach chair and brushed her dress down. "While it would be better if we could compress your essence into a nonliving weapon, turning you into a living weapon is also viable."

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  "You still haven't touched on the details of how exactly that's going to work."

  "Remember how you ingested that Golden Water? The effects are temporary. Once you wake up, you'll be back to normal. However, if we can affect your species upgrade from B to A, I believe we can make it permanent. What's more, we can amplify it. You'll have the power of the Golden Realm in every strike that you make, and every attack, and every ability."

  "Why do I suspect that this is going to hurt?"

  "Because it will. A lot."

  "Great." Nathan glanced over at Thalassa. "How exactly will I go about doing this?"

  "First of all, you can't use it any more traditional upgrade items. Anything that offers such a solution is to be ignored by you."

  "And what will I do instead?"

  "You need to get closer to your natural affinity. Become one with the water."

  "That sounds incredibly stupid."

  "I'm aware."

  Nathan dropped his head back into the beach chair. Great. More weird magic stuff that would probably affect his humanity and turn him into even more of a freak.

  "And how, pray tell," Nathan said. "Am I supposed to become one with water?"

  "I don't know. Sit in the stuff? Breathe it? Transform your body into it—"

  "Wait, transform my body?"

  Her eyebrows lifted up. "Oh, did I forget to tell you about that?"

  Nathan was silent for several seconds as his mind rolled with the implications. He would be able to move around the battlefield, transform from place to place—if he was in the water, his combat ability would shoot up exponentially.

  "Yes," Nathan said, very slowly and deliberately. "Yes, you forgot to tell me that I could do this."

  She waved him off. "Yeah, you could do it after you accepted my gift. I bet if you figure out how to do that, you'll be able to upgrade your species rank. Once you feel it start to come, make sure to ingest as much of that Golden Water as you can. It'll affect the evolution process, and you should take on some of its properties into yourself, permanently."

  "Is there a chance of something going wrong?" Nathan asked.

  "You could turn into water permanently and become a puddle on the ground, with only a vague sense of consciousness."

  "That would be bad."

  "It would be. So don't do that, okay?"

  "Are you going to give me any advice on how to avoid this outcome?"

  "I'm sure you have it under control."

  At this point, Nathan knew Thalassa well enough to know that she probably had no idea either. Which was fair, given that nobody in history had ever even gotten as far as Nathan had. They were both in the dark, scrambling around for answers. She was just the type of person who preferred looking like she actually knew what was happening.

  The conversation seemed to be over, but Nathan still had questions.

  Nathan opened his mouth, then shut it, then finally spoke. "You seemed a little bit off in our last meeting."

  Thalassa's mouth twitched into an expression of a grimace before it went back to her cool, unaffected, neutral position.

  "How so?"

  "You seemed a little distant."

  "I'm sure it was just your imagination."

  Nathan sighed. "Is this about Leviathan?"

  "No," she lied as easily as she breathed.

  Nathan didn't really want to push this, but he felt like things would only get worse and worse if he didn't at least try.

  "You never explained to me why you granted him power, you know," he said. "All you did was mention something about having made many mistakes in your long life, or something like that."

  She snorted. "And that's true."

  "So why did you make that one? Why grant him your power?"

  "Maybe I just didn't trust you. Maybe I wanted to make sure I didn't have all my eggs in one basket."

  The sharp, callous words were delivered with all the casualness of a fast-food lunch. Nathan scowled and crossed his arms.

  "I don't believe you," he said.

  She shrugged and looked away, a glassy expression in her eyes.

  "Think as you will," she said.

  Nathan's mind whirred as he tried to put together the pieces.

  "He had high affinity for water. And you were willing to go behind my back. Maybe part of that was his nature, but part of that might've been something else."

  "Nathan."

  "A relationship of some kind," he muttered. "A lover? No, I doubt you have that kind of attachment. A friend, then?"

  "Nathan, stop."

  Nathan stiffened.

  The conclusion was on the tip of his tongue.

  "He's not your distant relation, he's your son."

  Thalassa remained silent.

  The world cracked and Nathan's eyes snapped open.

  The bust of his head seemed to taunt Nathan from its position facing the wall. A pain in his head forced him to groan.

  “I really need to find another place to do these kinds of things.”

  'Things' being, of course, getting knocked unconscious and having weird visions.

  A knock at the door.

  Nathan, for a moment, considered telling the person on the other side to screw off before he realized that it was completely unfair of him to do so.

  “Come in,” he said.

  The door opened and revealed Chad on the other side.

  “Yo,” he said. “Just thought that you should know they found the first quest hub.”

  Nathan looked at his desk. At the current moment, he wanted nothing more than to take yet another nap there if it would avoid this.

  “Yeah, I guess I need to help out with that, huh?” Nathan said.

  “Probably.”

  Nathan stood up and walked over to the door. “Let’s go.”